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MR. CLAY'S SFEECH. 

AT THE B1.^•^•EU at ^•OBLE'S INX, 

Near Lexington, Jxily 12, 1827. / D I (> 

4. Our distinguished Guest, Henry Ctay.— The furnace of persecution may 
be h>!aipfi spven times, hotter, and seventy times more, he will come out unscath- 
ed by the fite of malignity, brighter to all and dearer to his friends; while his 
enemies shall sink with the dioss of their own vile materials. 

Mr. Clay, after the above toast had been read, ad- 
dressed the company as follows : 

Mr. President, FRIE^DS and fellow citizens : 

I beg |)ermi?sioD to offer ray hearty thanks, and to make my re- 
spectful acknowleHgments, for the affectionate reception which has 
teen given une (Inrins; my present visit to my old Congressional dis- 
trict, and for this hospitable and hnnourable testimony of your es- 
teem ;u)d confidence. And I th^nk you especially tor the friendly 
seni:ments and feelings expressed in the toast which you have just 
done me the hon lur to drink. I always had the happiness of know- 
in* ihat I enjoyed, in a high degree, the attachment of that portion 
of my fellow cidzens tvhom I formerly represented: but I should 
ne>er have been sensible of the strength and ardour of their affec- 
tion, except for the extraordinary character of the times. For near 
two years and a half I have been assailed with a rancour and bitter- 
ness which have few examples I have found myself the particular 
object of concerted and concentrated abuse ; and others, thrusting 
themselves between y^a and me, have dared to arraign me for 
trt.arhery to yonr interests. But my former constituents, unaffect- 
ed by the calumnies which have been so perseveringly circulated 
to my prejudice, have stood by me with a generous constancy and a 
noble magnanimity. The measure of their regard and confidence 
has risen with, and even surpassed, that of the malevolence, great 
as it is, of my personal and political foes. I thank you, gentlemen, 
who are alaige portion of my late constituents. I thank you, and 
every one of them, with all tny heart, for the manly support which 
1 have Ufiifoimly received. It has cheered and consoled me, amidst 
7\\ my severe trials ; and may I not add that it is honourable to the 
generous heart* and enlightened heads who have resolved to protect 
the character of an old friend and a faithful servant ? 

The numerous manifestations of your confidence and attachment 
will be among the latest and most treasured recollections of nur 



'2, 

life. They impose en me obligations which can never be weaken- 
ed or cancelled. One of these obligations is, that I should embrace 
every fair opportunity to vindicate that character which you have 
so generously sustained, and to evince to you and to the world, that 
you have not yielded to the impulses of a blind and enthusiastic 
sentiment. I feel that I am, on all fit occasions, especially bound to 
vindicate myself to my former constituents. It was as their repre- 
sentative ; it was in the fulfdment of a high trust which they con- 
aded to me, that I have been accused of violating the most sacred 
of duties, of treating their wishes with contempt, and their inter- 
ests with treachery. Nor is this obligation, in my conception of its 
import, at all weakened by the dissolution of the relations which 
heretofore existed between us. 1 would instantly resign the place 
i hold in the councils of the nation, and directly appeal to the suf- 
frages of my late constituents, as a candidate for re-election, if I did 
not know that my foes are of that class whom one rising from the 
dead cannot convince, whom nothing can silence, and who wage a 
war of extermination. On the issue of such an appeal, they would 
redouble their abuse of me and of you ; for their hatred is commoR 
to us both. 

They have compelled me so often to be the theme of my ad- 
dresses to the people, that I should have willingly abstamed on this 
festive occasion, from any allusion to this subject, but for a new and 
imposing form which the calumny against me has recently assumed. 
J am again put on my defence, not of any new charge nor by any 
new adversary ; but of the old chargen, clad in a new dress, and ex- 
hit- ed by an open and undisguised enemy. The fictitious names 
have been stricken from the foot of the indictment, and that of a 
bnown and substantial prosecutor has been voluntarily offered. — 
Undaunted by the formidable name of that prosecutor, I will avaiJ 
myself, with your indulgence, of this fit opportunity of free and un- 
reserved intercourse with you, as a large number of my late con- 
stituents, to make some observations on the past and present state of 
the question. When evidence shall be produced ; as I have no\r 
a clear right to demand, in support of the accusation, it will be the 
proper tinse for me to take such uotioc of it as its nature may re- 
quire. 

In February, 1825, it vyas my duty, as the Representative of this 
District, to vote for some one of the three candidates for the Pre- 
sidency, who were returned to the House of Representatives. It 
has been established, and can be further proved, that, before I left 
this state the preceding fall, I communicated to several gentlemea 
of the highest respectability, my fixed determination not to vote for 
General Jackson. The friends of Mr. Crawford asserted to the 
last, that the condition of his health was such as to enable him tr 
administer the duties of the office. I thought otherwise, after I 
reached Washington City, and visited him to satisfy myself; an4 
that that physical impediment, if there were no other objections, 
ought to prevent his election. Although the Delegations from four 
states voted for him, and his pretensions were zealously pressed t» 



-e^^ 



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the very last moment, it h;is been of late asserted, and I believe by 
some of the very persons ivho then warmly espoused his cause, 
that his incompetency was so palpable as clearly to limit the choice 
to two of the three returned candidates. In my view of my duty, 
there was no alternative but that which I embraced. That I had 
some objections to Mr. Adams, 1 am ready freely to admit, but these 
did not weigh a feather in comparison with the greater and insur- 
mountable objections, long and deliberately entertained against his 
competitor. I take this occasion, with great satisfaction, to state ; 
that my objections to Mr. Adams arose chiefly from apprehensions 
which have not been realized. I have found him at the head of the 
Government, able, enlightened, patient of investigation, and ever 
ready to receive with respect, and when approved by his judgment, 
to act upon the counsels of his official advisers. I add, with un- 
mixt pleasure, that, from the commencement of the Government, 
with the exception of Mr Jefferson's Administration, no Chief Ma- 
gistrate has found the members of his Cabinet so united on all pub- 
lic measures, and so cordial and friendly in all their intercourse, 
private and official, as those are of the present President. 

Had I voted for General Jack?on, in opposition to the well known 
opinions, which I entertained of him, one-tenth part of the ingenui- 
ty and zeal which have been employed to excite prejudices against 
me, would have held me up to universal contempt ; and what would 
have been worse, /should hnve Jelt that I really deserved it. 

Before the election, an attempt was made by an abusive letter, 
published in the Columbian Observer, at Philadelphia, a paper 
which, as has since transpired, was sustained by Mr. Senator Eaton, 
the colleague, the friend and the biographer of General Jackson, to 
assail my motives, and to deter me in the exercise of my duty. 
This letter being avowed by Mr. George Kremer, I instantly de- 
manded from the House of Representatives an investigation. A 
committee was accordingly, on the 5th day of February, 1825, ap- 
pointed in the rare mode of balloting by the House, instead of by 
the selection of the Speaker. It was composed of some of the 
leading members of the body, not one of whom was my political 
friend in the preceding Presidential canvass. Although Mr. Kre- 
tner, in addressing the House, had declared his willingness to bring 
forward his proofs, and his readiness to abide the issue of the in- 
quiry, his fears, or other counsels than his own, prevailed upon him 
to take refuge in a miserable subterfuge. Of all possible periodSj 
that was the most fitting to substantiate the charge, if it was true. 
Every circumstance was then fresh | the witnesses all living and 
present ; the election not yet complete ; and therefore the imputed 
corrupt bargain not fulfilled. All these powerful considerations 
had no weight with the conspirators and their accessaries, and they 
meanly shrunk from even an attempt to prove their charge, for the 
best of all possible reasons — because, being false and fabricated, 
ihey could adduce no proof which was not false and fabricated. 

During two years and a half, which have now intervened, a por- 
tion of thp press, flevotedto the cause of GeneralJackson, has been 



4. 

teeniifig with the vilest calumnies against mc, and the charge, under 
every cameleon form, has been a thousand times repeated. Up to 
this time, I have in vain invited investigation, and demanded evi- 
dence. None, not a particle, has been adduced. 

The extraordinary ground has been taken, that the accusers were 
not bound to establish by proof the guilt of their designated victim. 
In a civilized, christian and free community, the monstrous princi- 
ple has been assumed, that accusation and conviction are synony- 
mous ; and that the persons who deliberately bring forward an atro- 
cious charge, are exempted from all obligations to substantiate it ! 
j\nd the pretext is, that the crime, bfing of a political nature, is 
shrouded in darkness, and incapable of being substantiated. But is 
there any real difference, in this respect, between political and other 
offences ? Do not all perpetrators of crime endeavour to conceal 
their guilt, and to elude detection ? If the accuser of a political 
offence is absolved from the duty of supporting his accusation, every 
other accuser of offence stands equally absolved. Such a principle, 
practically carried into society, would subvert all harmony, peace 
and tranquillity. None — no age, nor sex, nor profession, nor call- 
ing, would be safe against its baleful and overwhelming intluence. 
It would amount to an universal license to universal calumny ! 

No one has ever contended, that the proof should be exclusive- 
ly that of eye witmsses, testifying from their senses positively and 
directly to the fact. Political, like all other offences, may be es- 
tablished by circumstantial as well as positive evidence. But I do 
contend, that some evidence, be it what it may, ought to be exhibit- 
ed. If there be none, how do the accusers know that an offence 
has been perpetrated ? If they do know it, let us have the facts 
on which their conviction is based. I will not even assert that, in 
public affairs, a citizen has not a right, freely to express his opin- 
ions of public men, and to speculate upon the motives of their con- 
duct. — But if he chooses to promulgate opinions, let them be given 
as opinions. The public will correctly judge of their value and 
their grounds. No one has a right to put forth the positive asser- 
tion, that a political offence has been committed, unless he stands 
prepared to sustain, by satisfactory proof of some kind, its actual 
existence. 

If he who exhibits a charge of a political crime is, from its very 
nature, disabled to establish it, how much more difficult is the con- 
dition of the accused ? How can he exhibit negative proof of his 
innocence, if no affirmative proof of his guilt is, or can be, adduced ? 

It must have been a conviction that the justice of the public re- 
quired a definite charge, by a responsible accuser, that has, at last, 
extorted from General Jackson his letter of the Gth of June, lately 
published. I approach that letter with great reluctance, not on my 
own account, for on that, I do most heartily and sincerely rejoice 
that it has made its appearance. But it is a reluctance, excited by 
the feelings of respect, which 1 would anxiously have cultivated to- 
wards its author. He has, however, by that letter, created such 
relations between us, that in any language which 1 may employ, in 



examining its contents, I feftl myself bound by no other obligations 
than those which belong to truth, to public decorum, and to myself. 
The first consideration which must, on the perus;d of the lelfer, 
force itself upon every reflecting mind, is that which ari?e!< out of 
the delicate posture in which General Jackson stands before the 
American public. He is a candidate for the Tresidency, avowed 
and proclain.ed. He has no competitor at present, and there is no 
probability of his having any, but one. The charges which he has 
allowed himself to be the organ of communicating to the very pub- 
lic who is to decide the question of the Presidency, though direct- 
ly aimed at me, necessarily implicate his only competitor. iMr. 
Adams and myself are both guilty, or we are both innocent, of the 
imputed arrangement between us. His innocence is absolutely ir- 
reconcilable with 7ny guilt. If General Jackson, therefore, can es- 
tablish my guilt, and, by inference, or by insinuation, that of his 
sole rival, he will have removed a great obstacle to the consumma- 
tion of the object of his ambition. And if he can, at the same time, 
make out his own purity of conduct, and impress the American peo 
pie with a belief that his purity and integrity alone prevented his 
success before the House of Representatives, his claims will become 
absolutely irresistible. Were there ever more powerful motives 
to propagate — was there ever greater interest, at all hazards, to 
prove the truth of charges ? 

I state the case, I hope, fairly ; I mean to state it fairly and fear- 
lessly. If the position be one which exposes General Jackson to 
unfavourable suspicions, it must be borne in mind that he has volun- 
tarily taken it, and he must abide the consequences. I am acting on 
the defensive, and it is he who assails me, and who has called forth, 
by the eternal laws of self-protection, the right to use all legitimate 
means of self-defence. 

General Jackson has shown, in his letter, that he is not exempt 
from the influence of that bias towards one's own interests, which is 
unfortunately the too common lot of human nature. It is his inter- 
est to make out that he is a person of spotless innocence, and of un- 
sullied integrity ; and to establish, by direct charge, or by necessa- 
ry inference, the want of those qualities in his rival. Accordingly, 
we find throughout the letter, a laboured attempt to set forth his 
own immaculate purity in striking contrast with the corruption which 
is attributed to others. We would imagine from his letter, that he 
very seldom touchers a newspaper. The Telegraph is mailed re- 
gularly for him at Washington, but it arrives at the Hermitage very 
irregularly. He would have the public to infer, that the Postmas- 
ter at Nashville, whose appointment happened not to be upon his 
recommendation, obstructed his reception of it. In consequence of 
his not receiving the Telegraph, he had not on the 6th June, 1827, 
seen Carter Beverley's famous Fayetteville letter, dated the 8th of 
the preceding March, published in numerous gazettes, and publish- 
ed, I have very little doubt, although I have not the means of ascer- 
taining the fact, in the gazettes of Nashville. I will not say, con- 
trary to General Jackson's assertion, that he had never read that 



letter, when he wrote that of the 6th of June, but I must think that 
it is very strange that he should not have seen it ; and that 1 doubt 
whether there is another man of any political eminence in the Uni- 
ted States who has not read it. There is a remarkable coincidence 
between General Jackson and certain editors who espouse his inter- 
est, in relation to Mr. Beverley's letter. They very early took 
the ground in respect to it, that I ought, under my own signature, to 
come out and deny the statements. And General Jackson now says, 
in his letter of the 6th of June, that he " always intended, should 
Mr. Clay come out over his own name, and deny having any know- 
ledge of the communication made by his friends to my friends and 
to me, that I would give him the name of the gentleman through 
whom that communication came." 

The distinguished member of Congress, who bore the alleged 
overture, according to General Jackson, presented himself with di- 
plomatic circumspection, lest he should wound the very great sensi- 
bility of the General. He avers that the communication was intend ■ 
ed with the most friendly motives, '' that became as a friend," and 
that he hoped, however it might be received, there would be no al- 
teration in the friendly feelings between them. The General gra- 
ciously condescends to receive the communication, and, in conside- 
ration of the high standing of the distinguished member, and of his 
having always been a professed friend, he is promised impunity, and 
assured that there shall be no change of amicable ties. After all 
these necessary preliminaries are arranged between the high nego- 
tiating powers, the envoy proceeds, " He had been informed by the 
"• friends of Mr. Clay, that the friends of Mr. Adams had made 
" overtures to them, saying, if Mr. Clay and his friends would 
" unite in aid of the election of Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay should be Se- 
*' cretary of State ; that the friends of Adams were urging, as 
" a reason to induce the friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their pro- 
" position, that if I was elected President, Mr Adams would be con- 
" tinued Secretary of State, (inuendo, there would be no room for 
*• Kentucky.") [Is this General Jackson's inuendo, or that of the 
distinguished member of Congress !] " That the friends of Mr. 
" Clay stated the West does not want to separate from the West, 
" and if 1 would say, or permit any of my confidential friends to say 
" that, in case I was elected President, Mr. Adams should not bo con- 
" tinued Secretary of State, by a complete union of Mr. Clay and 
<< his friends, they would put an end to the Presidential contest in 
« one hour ; and he was of opinion it was right to tight such in- 
" triguers with their own weapons." To which the General 
states himself to have replied in substance, " That in politics, as 
" in every thing else, my guide was principle, and, contrary to the 
" expressed and unbiassed will of the people or their constituted 
" af^ents, I never would step into the Presidential chair ; and rC' 
«' quested him to say to Mr. Clay and his friends, (for I did suppose 
" he had come froai Mr. Clay, although he used the terms Mr. Clay's 
''friends,) that before I would reach the Presidential chair by such 
" means of b.irgain and corruption, I would see the earth open and 



•' swallow both Mr. Glay and his friends, and myself with them." 
^ow all these professions are very fine, and disf.lay admirable pa- 
rity. But its sublimity would be somewhat more impres&ive, if ;ome 
person other than General Jackson had proclaimed it. He would 
go into the Presidential chair, but never, no 1 never contrary to 
" the expressed and unbiassed will ot the people, or their constilu- 
" ted agents ;" two modes of arriving at it the more reasonable, a5 
Jhere happens to be no other constitutional way. He would " see 
" the earth open and swallow both Mr. Clay and his friends and my- 
" self," before he would reach the Presidential chair by " such 
" means of bargain and corruption." I hope General Jackson did 
not intend that the whole human race should be also swallowed up, 
on the contingency he has stated, nor that they were to guaranty 
that he has an absolute repugnance to the employment of any ex- 
ceptionable means to secure his elevation to the Presidency. It" he 
had rendered the distinguished member of Congress a little more 
distinguished, by in.stantly ordering him from his presence, and by 
forthwith denouncing him and the infamous proposition which he 
bore to the American public, we should be a little better prepared 
to admit the claims to untarnished integrity, which the General so 
modestly puts forward. But, according to bis own account, a cor- 
rupt and scandalous proposal is made to him ; the person who con- 
veyed it, advises him to accept it, and yet that person still retains 
the friendship of General Jackson, who is so tender of his charac- 
ter that his name is carefully concealed and reserved to be hereafter 
brought forward as a witness I A man, who, if he be a member of 
the House of Representatives, is doubly infamous — infamous for the 
advice which he gave, and infamous for his willingness to connive at 
the corruption of the body of which he was a sworn member — is the_ 
credible witness by whom General Jackson stands ready to estab- 
lish the corruption of men whose characters were never questioned. 
Of all the properties which belong to honourable men, not one is 
30 highly prized as t' at of character. General Jackson cannot be 
insensible to its value, for he appears to be most anxious to set 
forth the loftiness and purity of his own. How has he treated 
mine? During the dispensation of the hospitalities of the Hermi- 
tage, in the midst of a mixed company, composed of individuals 
from various States, he permits himself to make certain statements 
respecting my friends and me, which, if true, would forever dis- 
honour and degrade us. The words are h;irdly passed from his 
mouth, before they are committed to paper by one of his guests, and 
transmitted in the f)rin of a letter to another Slate, where they are 
published in a newspaper, and thence circulated throughout the 
Union. And now he pretends that these statements were made, 
" without any calculation that they were to be thrown into the 
" public journals." Does he reprove the indiscretion of the guest 
who had violated the sanctity of a conversation at the hospitable 
board? Far from it. The public is incredulous. It cannot be- 
lieve that General Jackson would be so wanting in delicacy and de 
;oram. The guest appeals to him for the confirmation »f the pnb- 



8^ 

iished statements ; and the General promptly addresses a letter to 
him, in which " he most unequivocally confirms (says Mr. Carter 
" Beverley,) all I have said regarding the overture made to him 
"pending the last Presidential election before Congress; and he 
■' asserts a great deal more than he ever told 7ne." I should be glad 
to know if all the versions of the tale have now made their appear- 
ance, and whether General Jackson will allege that he did not '• cal- 
culate" upon the publication of his letter of the 6th of June 

The General states, that the unknown envoy used the terms " Mr. 
-' Clay's friends," to the exclusion, therefore, of myself, but he 
nevertheless inferred that he had come from me Now, why did 
he draw this inference contrary to the import of the statement 
which he received ? Does not this dispo^itiofl-io^educe conclu- 
sions unfiivourable to me, manifest the spirit which actuates him? 
And does not General Jackson exhibit throughout his letter a desire 
to give a colouring to the statement of his fV'end, the distinguished 
member of Congress, higher than they would justity ? No one should 
ever resort to implication but from necessity. Why did he not as- 
certain from the envoy if he had come from me ? Was any thing 
more natural than that Genera! Jackson should ascertain the per- 
sons who had deputed the envoy ? If his shocked sensibility and 
indignant virtue and patriotism would not allow him to inquire into 
particulars, ought he to have hazarded the assertion, that I was pri- 
vy to the proposal, without assuring himself of the fact ? Could he 
not, after rejecting the proposal, continuing as he did, on friendly 
terms with the organ of it, have satislied himself if I were conusant 
of it ? If he had not time, then, might he not have ascertained the 
f.tct from his friend or from me, during the intervening two and a 
half years ? The compunctions of his own conscience, for a moment, 
appear to have visited him towards the conclusion of his letter, for 
he there does say, " that in the supposition stated, /ma?/ have done 
*' injustice to Mr. Clay ; if so, the gentleman informing me can ex- 
" plain." No good or honourable man will do another voluntarily 
any injustice. It was not necessary that General Jackson should 
have done me any. And he cannot acquit himself of the rashness 
and iniquity of his conduct towards me by referring, at this late day, 
to a person, whose name is withheld from the public. This com- 
pendious mode of administering justice, by first hanging and thea 
trying a man, however justifiable it may be, according to the pre- 
cepts of the Jackson code, is sanctioned by no respectable system 
of jurisprudence. 

It is staled in the letter of the 6tb of June, that the overture was 
made early in January ; and that the second day after the communi- 
cation, it " was announced in the newspapers, that Mr. Clay had 
" come out openly and avowedly m favour of Mr. Adams." The 
object of this statement is obvious. It is to insinuate that the pro- 
posal which was rejected with disdain by General Jackson, was ac- 
cepted with promptitude by Mr. Adams. This renders the fact as 
to the time of the alleged annunciation very important. It is to be 
legretied that General Jtickson had not been a little more precis©. 



It wag early in January that the overture was made, and the second 
day after, the annunciation of my intention look place. Now, 1 will 
not assert that there may not have been some speculations in the 
newspapers about that time, (although I do not believe that there 
were even any speculations so early,) as to the probable vote which 
1 should give ; but I should be glad to see any newspaper which, the 
second day after early in January, asserted in its columns, that I had 
come oul " openly and avowedly in favour of Mr. Adams." 1 chal- 
lenge the production of such a paper, i do not believe that my in- 
tention so to vote for Mr. Adams was announced in the newspapers 
openly and avowedly during tho wbol<> month of January, or at any 
rate until late in the month. The only avowal of my intention to vote 
for him, which was publicly made in the newspapers prior to the elec- 
tion, is cootamed in my letter to Judge Brooks, which is dnted the 
28th January, It was first published in the Enquirer at Richmond, 
some time in the ensuing month. I go further ; 1 do not believe that 
any nevvspaper at VVashmijton can be produced, announcmg, before 
the latter part of January, the fact, whether upon my avowal or not, 
of my intention to vote for Mr. Adams. General Jackson's memory 
must deceive him He must have confounded events and circum- 
stances. His friend, Mr. George Kremer, in his letter to the Co- 
lumbian Observer, bearing date the 25th January, has, according to 
my recollection of the public prints, a claim to the merit of being 
the first, or among the first, to announce to the public my intended 
vote. That letter was first published at Philadelphia, and returned 
in the Columbian Observer to VVnshington City on the 31st January. 
How long before its date that letter was written for Mr. Kremer, 
does not appear. Whether there be any connexion between the 
communication made by the distinguished member of Congress, and 
that letter, perhaps General Jackson can explain. 

At the end of more than two years after a corrupt overture is 
made to Gen. Jackson, he now, for the first time, openly proclaims 
it. It is true, as 1 have ascertained since the publication of Mr. 
Beverley's Fayetteville letter, the General has been for a longtime 
secretly circulating the charge. Immediately on the appearance at 
Washington of that letter in the public prints, the Editor of the 
Telegraph asserted, in his paper, that General Jackson had com- 
municated the overture to him about the period of the election, not 
as he now states, but according to Mr. Beverley's version of the tale. 
Since 1 left Washington on the 10th of last month 1 have under- 
stood that General Jackson has made a similar communication to se- 
veral other persona, at different and distant points. Why has the 
overture been thus clandestinely circulated? Was it that through 
the medium of the Telegraph, the leading paper supporting 
the interest of General Jackson, and through his other depositories, 
the belief of the charge should be daily and gradually infused mto 
the public mind, and thus contribute to the supporf of his cause? The 
zeal and industry with which it has been propagated, the daily 
columns of certain newspapers can testify. Finding the public still 
unconvinced, has the General found it to br; necessary to come out 



10 

in proper person through the thin veil of Mr Carter Beverley's 
agcDcy ? 

When the alleged overture was made, the election remained un- 
decided. Why did not General Jackson then hold up to universal 
8corn and indignation the infamous bearer of the proposal, and those 
^ho dared to insult his honour, and tamper with his integrity ? If 
he had at that time denounced all the infamous parties concerned, 
demanded an inquiry in the House of Representatives, and establish- 
ed, by satisfactory proof, the truth of his accusation, there might, 
and probably would have been, a different result to the election. 
VVhy, when at my instance, a cuiuuiitiee was ou the 5th day of 
t'ebruary, 1825, (ouly four days before the election) appointed to 
investigate the charges of Mr. Kremer, did not General Jackson 
present himself and establish their truth ? Why, on the 7th of that 
Jnonth, two days before the election, when the committee reported 
that Mr. Kremer declined to come forward, and that if they knew 
of any reason for such investigation, they would have asked to be 
clothed with the proper power, but not having themselves any such 
knowledge, they have felt it to be their duty only to lay before the 
House the communication which they have received ;" — why did not 
General Jackson authorize a motion to recommit the report, and 
roanfuUy come forward with all his information ? The Congress of 
tbe Nation is in session. An important election has devolved on it. 
ii.ll eyes are turned towards Washington. The result is awaited 
with intense anxiety and breathless expectation. A corrupt propo» 
sition, aifecting the election, is made to one of the candidates. He 
receives it. is advised to accept it, deliberates, decides upon it. A 
committee is in session to investigate the very charge. The can- 
didate, notwithstanding, remains profoundly silent, and after the 
lapse of more than two years, when the period of another election 
is rapidly approaching, in which he is the only competitor for the 
isffice, for the first time, announces it to the American public ! They 
must have more than an ordinary share of credulity, who do not 
believe that General Jackson labours under some extraordinary de- 
lusion. 

It is possible that he may urge, by way of excuse for what must 
be deemed his culpable concealment of meditated corruption, that 
he did not like to volunteer as a witness before the committee, or 
to transmit to it the name of his fri-^nd, the distinguished Member 
of the House of Representatives, although it is not very easy to dis- 
cern any just reason for this volunteering now, which would not 
have applied with more force at that time. But what apology 
can be made for his failure to discharge his sacred duty as an Ameri- 
can Senator ? More than two months after the alleged overture, 
my nomination to the office which I now hold, was made to the 
Senate ot the United States, of which General Jackson was then a 
sworn member. On that nomination, he had to deliberate and act 
in the most solemn manner. If I were privy to a corrupt proposal 
to General Jackson, touching the recent election ; if I had entered 
into a corrupt bargain osith Mr. Ada.TTifi to Bscjsre his elevatioDj i r?as 



H 

unworthy the office to which I was nominated, and it wa3 the duty 
of General Jackson, if he really possessed the information which 
he now puts forward, to have moved the Senate to appoint a com- 
mittee ot enquiry, and by establishing my guilt, to have preserved 
the National Councils from an abominable contamination. As the 
conspiracy of George Kremer Si Co. had a short time before, meanly 
shrunk from appearing before the committee of the House of Re 
presentatives, to make good their charges, 1 requested a Senator of 
the United States, when my nomination should be taken up, to ask 
of the Senate the appointment of a committee of enquiry, unless it 
should appear to him to be altogether unnecesary. One of out 
own Senators was compelled, by the urgency of his private busi- 
ness, to leave Washington before my nomination was disposed of, 
and as I had but little confidence in the fidelity of the professed friend- 
ship of the other, I was constrained to present my aj)plication to a 
Senator from another state. I was allerwards informed, that when it 
was acted upon, General Jackson and every other Senator present, 
was silent as to the imputations now made, no one presuming to ques- 
tion my honour or integiity. How can General Jackson justify it to 
his conscience or to his country, this palpable breach ot his public 
duty ? It is in vain to suy that he gave a silent negative vote. Ht 
was in possession of information which, if true, must have occasion- 
ed the rejection of my nomination. It does not appear that any 
other Senator possessed the same information. Investigation waa 
alike due to the purity of the National Councils, to me, and, as an 
act of strict justice, to all the other paities implicated. It is im- 
possible for him to escape from the dilemma that he has been faith- 
less, as a Senator of the United States, or has lent himself to the 
circulation of an atrocious calumny. 

After the election, General Jackson was among the first who ea- 
gerly pressed his congratulations upon his successful rival. If Mr, 
Adams had been guilty of the employment of impure means to effect 
his election. General Jackson ought to have disdained to sully his 
own hands by touching those of his corrupt competitor. 

On the 10th of February, 1825, the very next day after the elec- 
tion, General Jackson was invited to a public dinner at Washington, 
by some ot his friends. He expressed to them his wish that he 
might be excused from accepting the invitation, becau?e, alluding to 
the recent election, he said " any evidence of kindness and regard, 
" such as you propose, might, by many, be viewed as conveying 
" with it EXCEPTION, murmuring, and feelings of complaint, which 
" I sincerely hope belong to none of my friends." More than one 
month after the corrupt proposal is pretended to have been receiv- 
ed, and after, according to the insinuation of General Jackson, a 
corrupt arrangement had been made between Mr. Ad;ims and me — 
after the actual termination of an election, the issue of which was 
brought about, according to Gen. Jackson, by the basest of means, he 
was unwilling to accept the honours of a public dinner, lest ii 
should imply even an exception against the result of the election. 

General Jackson professes in his letter of the Gth of June — 3 



12 

quote again his \vor<3s, *' to have always intended, should Mr. Clay 
come out over his own signature, and deny having any knowledge 
of the coinmunication made by his friends to my friends and to rae, 
that I would give him the name of the gentleman through whom 
that communication came." He pretends never to have seen the 
Fayetteville letter, and yet the pretext of a denial under 7ny signu' 
ture is precisely that which had been urged by the principal editors 
who sustain his cause, if this be an unconcerted, it is neverthe- 
less a most wonderful coincidence. The General never communi- 
oated to me his professed intention, but left rae in entire ignorance 
of his generous purpose ; like the overture itself, it was profoundly 
concealed from me. There was an authorized denial from me, 
which went the circle of the public prints, immediately after the 
arrival at Washington of the Fayetteville letter In that denial my 
words are given. They were contained in a letter dated at Wash- 
ington City on the 18th day of April last, and are correctly stated 
to have been " that the statement that his (my) friends had made 
such a proposition as the letter describes, to the friends of General 
Jackson was, as far as he knew or believed, utterly destitute of 
foundation ; that he was unwilling to believe that General Jackson 
had made any such statement, but that no matter with whom it had 
originated, he was fully persuaded it was a gross fabrication, of the 
same calumnious character with the Kremer story, put forth for 
the double purpose of injuring his public character and propping 
the cause of General Jackson, and that for himself and for his 
friends, he defied the substantiation of the charge before any fair 
tribunal whatever." Such were my own words transmitted in the 
form of a letter from a friend to a known person. Whereas the 
■charge which they repelled was contained in a letter written by a 
person then unknown to some person also unknown. Did I not 
deny the charge under my own signature in my card of the 31st 
January, 1823, published in the National Intelligencer? Was not 
there a substantial denial of it in my letter to Judge Brooke, dated 
the 28th of the same month ? In my circular to my Constituents ? 
In my Lewisburg Speech ? And may I not add, in the whole tenor of 
my public life and conduct ? If General Jackson had offered to fur- 
nish me the name of a member of Congress who was capable of 
advising his acceptance of a base and corrupt proposition, ought I 
to have resorted (o his infamous and discredited witness ? 

It has been a thousand timf>s asserted and repeated, that I vio- 
lated instructions which I ought to have obeyed. I deny the charge ; 
and I am happy to have this opportunity of denying it in the pre- 
sence of my assembled Constituents. The General Assembly re- 
quested the Kentucky delegation to vote in a particular way. A 
majority ot that delegation, including myself, voted in opposition to 
ihii' request. The legislature did not intend to give an ij«/jerai?7;e in- 
struction. The distinction between a request and an instruction 
was familiar to the legislature ; and their rolls attest that the for- 
mer is ahv;iys addressed to the members of the House of Repre- 
setitative--, and the kilter only t» the Senators ©f the United State**;. 



13 

But I do not rely exclusirely on this recogoteed distinction. I 
dispute, at once, the right of the legislature to issue a mandatory 
instruction to the Representatives of the people. Such a right has 
no foundation in the Constitution, in the reason or nature of things, 
nor in the usage of the Kentucky Legislature. Its exercise would 
be a raanitest usurpation. The General Assembly has the incon- 
trovertible right to express its opinion, and to proclaim its wishes, 
on any political subject whatever ; and to such an expression great 
deference and respect are due ; but it is not obligatory. The peo- 
ple, w hen, in August, 1824, they elected members to the General 
Assembly, did not invest them with any power to regulate or control 
the exercise of the discretion of the Kentucky Delegation in the 
Congress of the United States. I put it to the candour of every 
elector present, if he intended to part with his own right, or anti- 
cipated the exertion of any such power by the legislature, when he 
gave his vote in August, 1824. 

The only instruction which I received from a legitimate source, 
emanated from a respectable portion of my immediate constituents ; 
and that directed me to exercise my own discretion, regardless of 
the will of the legislature. You subsequently ratified my vote by 
unequivocal demonstrations, repeatedly given of your affectionate 
attachment and your unshaken confidence. You ratified it two 
years ago by the election of my personal and political friend (Judge 
Clarke) to succeed me in the House of Representatives, who had 
himself subscribed the only legitimate instruction which I received. 
You ratify it by the presence and the approbation of this vast and 
respectable assemblage. 

I rejoice again and again, that the contest has at length assumed 
its present practical form. Heretofore, malignant whispers, and 
dark surmises, have been clandestinely circulated,' or openly or 
unblushingly uttered, by irresponsible agents. They were borne 
upon the wind^ and, like them, were invisible and intangible. 
No responsible man stood forward to sustain them, with his acknow- 
ledged authority. They have at last a local habitation and a name. 
General Jackson has now thrown off the mask, and cotues confess- 
edly forth from behind his concealed batteries, publicly to accuse 
and convict me. We stand confronted before the American people. 
Pronouncing the charges as 1 again do, destitute of all foundation, 
and gross aspersions, whether clandestinely or openly issued from 
the halls of the Capitol, the saloons of the Hermitage, or by press, 
by pen, or by tongue ; and safely resting upon my conscious integrity, 
I demand the witness, and await the event with fearless confidence. 

The issue is fairly joined. The imputed offence does not com- 
prehend a single friend, but the collective body of ray friends in 
Congress; and it accuses them of offering, and me with sanction- 
ing, corrupt propositions, derogating from honour, and in violation 
of the most sacred of duties. The charge has been made after 
two years deliberation. General Jackson has voluntarily taken his 
position, and without provocation. In voting against him as Presi- 
dent of the United States. I gave him no just cause of otTence. I 



14 

exercised no more thnn my indisputable privilege, rs, on a subse- 
quent occasion, of which I have never complained, he exercised 
his in voting against me as Secretary of State. Had I voted for 
him, I must have gone counter to every fixed principle of my pub- 
lic life. I believed him incompetent, and his election fraught with 
danger. At this early period of the Republic, keeping steady in 
view the dangers which had overturned every other Free State, I 
believed it to be essential to the lasting preservation of our liberties, 
that a man, devoid of civil talents, and offering no recommendation 
but one founded on military service, should not be selected to ad- 
minister the Government. I believe so yet ; and I shall consider the 
days of the Commonwealth numbered, when an opposite principle 
is established. I believed, and still believe, that now, when our 
institutions are in comparative infancy, is the time to establish the 
great principle, that military qualification alone is not a sufficient 
title to the Presidency. If we start right, we may run a long race 
of liberty, happiness, and glory. If we stumble in •'etting out, we 
shall fall as others have fallen before us, and fall without even a 
claim to the regrets or sympathies of mankind. 

I have never done General Jackson, knowingly, any injustice. 
I have taken pleasure, on every proper occasion, to bestow on him 
merited praise for the glorious issue of the battle of New Orleans. 
No American citizen enjoyed higher satisfaction than I did with the 
event. I heard it for the first time on the Boulevards of Paris ; 
and I eagerly perused the details of the action, with the anxious 
hope that I should find that the gallant militia of my own state had 
avenged, on the banks of the Mississippi, the blood which they had 
so freely spilt on the disastrous field of Raisin. That hope was not 
then gratified ; and although I had the mortification to read the ofTj= 
cial statement, that they had ingloriously fled, I was nevertheless 
thankful for the success of the arms of my country, and felt grateful 
to him who had most contributed to the ever memorable victory. 
This concession is not now made for the purpose of conciliating the 
favour, or mitigating the wrath, of General Jackson. He has 
erected an impassable barrier between us, and I would scorn to ac- 
cept any favour at his hands. I thank my God that Hk has endow- 
ed me with a soul incapable of apprehensions from the anger of any 
being but himself. 

i have, as your representative, freely examined, and in my de- 
liberate judgment, justly condemned, the conduct of General Jackson 
in some of our Indian wars. I believed, and yet believe him, to 
have trampled upon the Constitution of his country, and to have vio- 
lated the principles of humanity. Entertaining these opinions, I 
did not, and could not, vote for him. 

I owe you, my friends and fellow citizens, many apologies for this 
long interruption of the festivities of the day. I hope that my de- 
sire to vindicate their honoured object, and to satisfy you that he (s 
not altogether unworthy of them, will be deemed sufficient. 



LfeMr'20 



